Fires commonly occur after a vehicle crash or collision. A fire can occur when the vehicle's fuel tank is ruptured and the resulting spilled fuel is ignited by an electrical spark. Therefore, it would be beneficial if vehicles were equipped with a mechanism that was activated during a crash or collision, which resulted in the shut-off of electrical power to the vehicle thus eliminating electrical sparks.
The present invention provides such a mechanism. The present invention is adapted for use in any electrical switching environment. The present invention uses a radially resilient electrical socket of the type sometimes referred to as a barrel terminal. In barrel terminals, conductor strips or wires are stretched and extend through the interior of a cylindrical sleeve from a first circumferential location at one end of the sleeve to a second circumferential location at the opposite end of the sleeve which is angularly displaced about the sleeve axis from the first circumferential location. A plurality of such strips so mounted within a cylindrical sleeve collectively lie on a surface of revolution of a general hourglass shape whose diameter varies from a minimum diameter midway between the ends of the sleeve and a maximum diameter at the ends of the sleeve. When a cylindrical electric contact of a diameter intermediate the minimum and maximum diameters referred to above is inserted into such a barrel terminal, the conductor strips will collectively exert a radially resilient grip on the contact. This type of barrel terminal and a method for making the barrel terminal is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,335 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,734,063. Commercially available connectors suitable for use in the present invention are sold under the names of Hypertronics' Hypertrac, Elcon Helix, Elcon Crown or RADSOK.RTM.. Other commercially available connectors suitable for use in the present invention do not use angularly displaced wires, instead these connectors use parallel wires that have been bent or forced concave by a circumferential spring. Such a barrel terminal with parallel wires is sold under the name of O.D.U. Springtac.TM. and Compliant Conductive Connections CCC.TM. contact.